


From the Cheap Seats

by mp3



Category: SHINee
Genre: ???? - Freeform, Running Away, he comes back after only like 3 hours tho otl, this was really lame im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-23
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 19:32:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3990046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mp3/pseuds/mp3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's late and it's cold and Taemin knows the way home, but that's not where he's headed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From the Cheap Seats

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this on lj a few months ago :/ not my favorite thing that I've written

It's nearly two in the morning when Taemin leaves dance practice. It's not like anyone  _made_  him stretch and sweat and work for six hours, but Jonghyun was studying and Jinki was drinking and Kibum was texting and Minho was playing video games and Taemin was  _bored_.

Besides, it's not like they miss him or anything--that's not their job. Their jobs are to look pretty for the camera and smile here and blanch there and  _oh, Taemin, would you get the door?_  and  _oh, Taemin, I'm busy right now, maybe later._

It's not like he ever  _tried_  to bother his hyungs--or anyone for that matter--but he doesn't exactly have anyone to turn to. He doesn't have the privelege that other teenagers have of going home to two loving parents and eating home cooking every night and being able to just spill his thoughts out to whoever is listening. He just doesn't  _have_  that. Instead, he has a dorm and four older brother figures and on-the-go breakfast smoothies and forgotten lunches and a songwriting journal that lies forgotten in the bottom drawer of his dresser.

So instead of going back to the dorm right away when he leaves the SM Entertainment building at 1:57 A.M., Taemin walks in the opposite direction. He's not quite sure where he's headed, but he knows for a fact that he likes the cool wind in his hair and on his face as we walks down street after street. He enjoys the feeling that's settled in the pit of his stomach--it's not quite rebellion and it's not quite guilt. Maybe it's the feeling of him finally finding himself. 

If he sort of knew where he was before, he  _really_  doesn't know where he is now. There's a church to his left and a market on his right, but all he truly cares about at this point is how alive he feels and if he'll ever feel this way about anything ever again.

He revels in the feeling of the lights shining brightly around him, so different than the familiar pressure that accompanies the figurative and literal spotlight being directly on him. 

He's a robot, he realizes as he encounters a large park. A sellout, too. When was the last time he did something because he wanted to? Probably his audition for SM.

 _No_ , he thinks, _forget this. I'm not going to be a sad sack by sitting here on this park bench at two-thirty in the morning and letting time pass as I throw a pity party._

And he doesn't. 

Instead, he walks some more. He walks and he walks and he knows that surely he's not in Seoul anymore, but that doesn't really stop him from going further. He's positive that he's made it to Gwangyeong, if the sparse buildings are any indication.

Suddenly, Taemin is scared. He has somewhat come down from his high and it hits him that he's never really been outside of Seoul before. Not alone, anyways. Not at night. Not as a  _runaway._

He uses his phone to locate the nearest bus stop--he'd die before calling one of his hyungs to pick him up. Luckily, there's one about ten minutes North of his current location.

He follows his phone map, the bright light illuminating the gentle curve of his face in the dark twilight.

Taemin rides the bus back to Seoul alone, fists clenched in the pockets of his jacket, hood pulled up over his head and long bangs protecting his eyes from making contact with any strangers. He's not so sure what he's worried about, not now that he's on his way back home--the only other people on the bus are an old man reading a newspaper and a young woman dressed rather formally to be out this late. Er, early.

His stop is close enough to the dorm, right next to a noodle shop that he, Minho, Jonghyun, Key, and Onew used to walk to during their trainee days. They would joke that walking there was the only way they could eat there--they'd gain too much weight from the noodles, otherwise.

God, how pathetic could he get? First running away and throwing himself a pity party, then becoming the World's Biggest Coward, then missing four people that he hadn't even been away from for two hours.  _God._

He gets off the bus and trudges the mile and a half to their dorm building, passing street signs and humming self-compositions and old songs of theirs, singing the whole thing to feel what it's like to be in his hyungs' shoes. The anxiety pooled in his stomach only grows as he nears their dorm. He really hopes that nobody's awake when he enters...that would just make for an entertaining situation for them and an awkward one for him. 

_No...Jonghyun-hyung runs off to do his own thing all the time and doesn't come back until early in the morning, yet he doesn't get asked about it. Why would it be any different for me?_

It's well past three when Taemin enters their building, pushes the button for the elevator, and waits. He's not quite sure what he's waiting for, since the elevator doors open immediately, but he stays where he is and stares at the lift. 

Maybe he's waiting for a sign that he isn't doing the right thing. That he should just quite this whole idol business, go back to his actual  _home_  where his parents are and just pretend that he's never done the things he's done and never met the people that he's met. 

But then he finds himself in front of their dorm door and his hand hovers over the knob. Even from the other side of the door, Taemin can hear Jonghyun talking--or is it the TV?--but then he hears Key respond and he knows that if he doesn't walk in right now, he never will. 

So he turns the knob slowly, cautiously opening the door and slipping inside. He gets past the dividing wall of the entry way, and all is silent. Key and Jonghyun are turned towards him, and it's obvious that Jonghyun has been crying. Key's eyebrows are drawn together in a worried frown that doesn't quite suit his face, and he immediately walks over to Taemin and pulls him into a hug. Jonghyun starts crying again, and Taemin knows that he has some explaining to do. 

 _All of that can wait, though_ , he thinks as he wraps his arms around Key's waist.

He's finally home.


End file.
